First Hedi Slimane Takes the Accent Out of Celine, Now He’s Embracing Mobile Advertising

Hedi Slimane has officially pushed his new role as creative director of Celine into overdrive. Weeks after he wiped the label’s Instagram clean and days after he revamped the logo, he’s now taking his new vision for the French house to the streets. If you were walking around in the scorching heat in New York today, you may have noticed an odd parade of trucks rolling by, each one plastered with a Slimane-ified glimpse at Celine Spring 2019. The two images were the same ones the designer has been posting to the brand’s Instagram: a close-up shot of a gold metallic curtain and the back of a model from the elbows up, wearing shiny black fringe.

It seems like Slimane, who often fancies himself a man of mystery (he typically refuses interviews and lives a fairly private life in Los Angeles), is dropping bread crumbs, and big ones at that. He isn’t being shy about the fact that he’s taking Phoebe Philo’s much beloved aesthetic off the table and replacing it with his own direction. There’s nothing subtle about the hashtag #CelineByHediSlimane. And really, who can blame him? The thought of replacing one of fashion’s most revered female designers, one who changed the way so many women of a certain age dressed and thought about dressing, is daunting. Slimane has to go bold, he’s got to pave his own way—and he’s beginning to forge that path with a bunch of trucks rolling through New York during Fashion Week. What a way to make an entrance.